This year’s Gluestick official poster artist is Brett Manning. She lives and works in her spooky old farmhouse in rural Indiana. She lives with Frank, some bunnies, some cats and dogs, and an axolotl. Her favorite things to do are draw, paint, make dolls, listen to nightmare-inducing podcasts, and drink coffee. She is heavily inspired by flora and fauna, the mysterious, paranormal, and magical side of life, mythology, folklore, fairytales, and the works of Dame Darcy, Beatrix Potter, and Frida Kahlo.
Gluestick Schedule of Events 10 Johnson Deck
(In case of rain, inside Irving Theater)
12:30-1:00 pm 1:00-2:00 pm 2:00-3:00 pm 3:00-4:00 pm
Achilles Tenderloin Zine Living Color (outdoor workshop) Monster House Press/Face `A Face poetry Monster House Press/Face `A Face poetry
Irving Theater Musicians and Workshops Workshops and demos will be held in the green room (up a few steps to the left of the stage)
1:00-3:00 pm Twinkle Van Winkle (DJ MomJeans) spinning. 12:00-1:00 pm DIY Rubber Stamp Making by S. Jane Mills 1:00-2:00 pm Weed It and Reap: Urban Gardening with Susan Fleckenstein 2:00-3:00 pm Collagraph Demo by Taylor Dickens 3:00-4:00 pm Mark Murrmann keynote talk 4:00-5:00 pm Bookbinding Demo by Martin Clinch with xylophone punk by Mark Dippel
Inside Irvington Vinyl
12:00 pm-5:00 pm Gluestick Library Chairs will be available for those wanting to read pieces at their leisure. Not all publications will be available to look through due to age and fragility. Zines can be donated the day of the fest, and there will be a designated box for those donations. Gluestick 2017 brought to you by: Managing Director Kelsey Simpson Arts & Press Director Elsy Benitez Programming & Sponsorship Director S. Jane Mills Volunteer Coordinator Adrienne Lawson Workshop Coordination Maria Iqbal, Ari Attack, Susan Fleckenstein Infographic Specialist Claude Bell Print Management Samuel C. Murphy Tech Support Jason Cavan For a PDF of this program, contact Claude @ claude6bell@gmail.com.
Food! • 10 Johnson Avenue serves gluten-free baked goods, coffee/espresso drinks, and light lunch options. They will be open all day. • If you’re looking to cool down with something sweet, Calliope Sno-balls will be parked on Johnson Avenue waiting for you with New Orleans style shaved ice. Spud Buggy will also have vegan-friendly snacks for sale. • Check out the map on the back of this program for other dining options a short walk away on Washington Street.
Susan Fleckenstein Susan Fleckenstein aka Devil Girl from Mars will be tabling with DIY and anarcho materials! In addition to this awesomeness, she will be leading the Weed it and Reap: Sowin’ and Growin’ with Limited Resources workshop. Come learn how to grow food for you and yours, and pick up a book from her table!
Sean Dempsey “I am a comic artist, illustrator, and writer. My fictional work focuses on curiosity and adventure through traveling or misfit characters. The stories I tell embrace a balance of innocent and cynical protagonists. Many of my characters are diverse and relatable where the audience can witness their inner growth, discovery, and individuality. I like being able to surprise people with my work whether it’s the moment when they get the joke or when they realize the complexity of my mini comics. On another note, I’m also a fan of bad groan-inducing humor like puns and ‘dad jokes’. Either way I like seeing people light up when they look through my comics and I know that my art has impacted them. I enjoy playing with storytelling through experimental and alternative formats. Many of my books are mini-comics that are crafted by hand. Each comic is cut, folded, and bound individually. For each of my mini-comics I employ a variety of tools to create these pieces; traditional pen and ink, watercolor, digital coloring, and screen
printing. My post-production techniques also vary from saddle-stitching to single-page fold to accordion fold. The tactical quantities of my books are really important to me like, the touch of raw canvas covers or the detailed form of a die cut cardstock. I’ve also been doing autobiographical work for the last four years since I moved to Chicago with my then girlfriend. Everyday I draw a comic to record something that happened to me – whether it’s mundane, funny, boring, a dream, etc. I’ve done over 1,000 comics at this point, which are posted on my tumblr, but also annually published in a Illustra-sean book edition. These show a glimpse into my life as a recent college graduate, as a retail employee, as an artist, as a queer person, as a Chicagoan, and as a progressive. It’s become very self-reflective and therapeutic for me and hopefully relatable to the average person. My hope is that anyone could turn to a page of my daily comics and find something they relate to on a personal level.”
Kristin Ousley Kristin is a cartoonist, designer, and illustrator in Bloomington, IN. In 2014 she graduated from Indiana University with a B.A. in Studio Art/Graphic Design. She has self published a number of comics, including the Piper’s Mystical Guidance series, Dungeon Level, and Abundant Growth. “I love to make people laugh. I’m working on more stories to make people cry, but there will be laughter as well. I take my
Mark Murrmann – Keynote Speaker Mark Murrmann started publishing zines in 1991 beginning with Sty Zine. To date he has published over 50 zines. Mark worked as co-coordinator of Maximum Rocknroll after founder Tim Yohannan’s death in 1998, then became a longtime shitworker and columnist. He was also a columnist for the Indianapolis Star, hosted the Rocknroll Blitzkrieg! Radio show on WFHB in Bloomington and ran a couple record labels. He now works as photo editor at Mother Jones in San Francisco and still publishes photozines. Mark specializes in documentary-style photography for editorial and commercial clients. He was named one of Lürzer Archives’ 200 Best Advertising photographers of 2010/11 and was chosen for American Photography 27 and 29. Mark is a contract photographer with ZUMA Press. He loves shooting bands and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. His photos have appeared on dozens of record covers and in publications around the world. He has done commercial work for Jim Beam, Levi’s (at SXSW) and Nikegridiron.com. He contributes regularly to Hamburger Eyes and curated the Maximum Rocknroll photo issue (and accompanying exhibit) in 2010. In his presentation, Mark will show work tracing the past 25 years: from starting a zine, not having any idea what he was doing, to being photo editor at a major national magazine. His talk will include amazingly awful layouts from early issues of Sty Zine to less awful later Sty Zine efforts and how his zine work led to working at Maximum Rocknroll and eventually Mother Jones. He’s also going to show a lot of photos—early photos from Indy and Bloomington punk shows in the ’90s, branching out to photojournalism, street photography and music photos from around the world, and discussing how this work still fuels his interest in zines.
inspiration from fantasy, videogames, nature, and anything magical.”
Calliope “We’re Lori, Nich (Lori’s husband) and Beverly (Nich’s mom). Lori moved to Indy from New Orleans years ago. Although she loves Indy, she missed the sno-balls from her home city, where you could find a sno-ball stand on practically every corner. As we took trips to New Orleans, sno-ball stops became increasingly important in the itinerary, so much so that the last trip we made we started planning everything around trying new stands! So we decided to bring the AWESOMENESS that is the New Orleans sno-ball up north.
Fun trivia: Calliope Sno-balls gets its name from one of nine streets in New Orleans named after the Greek muses. Calliope is the muse of Epic Poetry. It’s also the middle name of our daughter & lead taste tester, Madeleine. Spud Buggy will also have vegan-friendly snacks for sale.
Veronica Leto “My first zine was made as a challenge for a mail art project. Write a manifesto. At the time I wrote a manifesto for creativity, because at the time I was coming into my own as an artist. You know, getting comfortable with saying the word out loud.
Workshops and Demos 12pm-1pm DIY Rubber Stamp Demo Our own S. Jane Mills shows you how to make your own rubber stamp. You will be able to take home a zine with all the info to do this at home! 1pm-2pm Weed it and Reap: Sowin’ and Growin’ with Limited Resources (Irving Theater) Coordinator Susan Fleckenstein will teach you how to maintain a garden with limited living space. Learn how to easily grow food to feed your belly and mind! 1pm-2pm Zine Living Color (deck outside 10 Johnson) An exercise in freedom within marginalized groups. Creating lit pieces to tell our stories, and share experiences. 2pm-3pm Collagraph Demo Collagraphy (sometimes spelled collography) is a printmaking process in which materials are applied to a rigid substrate (such as paperboard or wood). The word is derived from the Greek word koll or kolla, meaning glue, and graph, meaning the activity of drawing. Taylor Dickens will give a demonstration on how to make a collagraph! 4pm-5pm Bookbinding Martin Clinch will teach you how to make hard-cover books easily with DIY materials! Clearly, unapologetically identifying. Since then I have written many manifestos: for my fat body that owes you nothing, for my queer life that will partake in all desire, for the communities I am a part of as we fight for every inch of our freedom. Making zines, no matter what they are about, is a form of activism and a fierce commitment to DIY principles. Personally, it’s my one claim to punk. My process will never change despite tech advancements. Give me a stack of magazines, a typewriter, some scissors and gluesticks, a copy machine, and a ream of paper. I will give my all to putting myself out there on the pages in hopes that you will find comfort, perspective, or inspiration. My zines are part sketchbook, part journal, and part therapy practice. I mostly write personal essays, non-linear narrative, and other prose about my heartbreak and discoveries. Sometimes, I mix in how to zine, usually about birth or zine making itself. Sometimes, I get overtly political and spit and curse lyrically. My zine art could be described as alternative portraiture as I
draw faces both cute and disturbing and I collage a visual akin to identity crisis. Currently, I offer about 30 of my own titles at fests, slightly more online. None are serialized zines, but I am working on changing that with a forthcoming title called Free Paragraphs. I am also the editor of several collaborative zine projects, the most consistent being a quarterly feminist zine called RIPE WITH RAGE.”
Elsy, Kelsey, and Gustavo Elsy Benitez’s interests include photography, super 8, contemporary art, and video media. Her research is focused on representations of intimacy, community, and identity. Her zine, Latent Image, is on its second issue and will focus on landscape photography and poetry. Kelsey Blacklock makes work that explores the urban landscape, the glow of artificial light, and the fear of certain zip codes after dark. Evoked from feelings of exclusion, Gustavo Uriel’s works are idealized perceptions of the modern queer male experience.
“The Ladydrawers Comics Collective (AKA ‘The Ladydrawers’) is an unofficially affiliated group that researches, performs, and publishes comics and texts about how economics, race, sexuality, and gender impact the comics industry, other media, and our culture at large. Our data comes from original research conducted in the public realm by students, interns, volunteers, and supporters around the globe. Our content—including comic books, online strips, posters, postcards, games, apparel— is created by a range of folks interested in, and with a range of experiences in, the comics industry, including professionals and newcomers.”
Deathbot Mfg. The information age with its distancing of tactile experience inspires our efforts. In reaction to mass consumption of cheap manufactured goods, Deathbot Manufacturing produces unique sculptures made of recycled cardboard, paper board and found material. Assembly line construction plays along the lines of artistic creation and mechanical design. Removing the preciousness associated with more refined artistic mediums, the appeal is the transformation of throw-away material into relatable objects. Cutting, bending and gluing, the results are interpretations of toys: toy bugs, toy robots, toy tanks, toy sceneries. We are a collaborative team brought together by shared aesthetic interests.
Darcy Stricker “April 25th, 2017 was my last day of being 25–which means my year 25 birthday zine is ready to start going out into the world! Read my secrets and my stories and look at stuff I made while 25 that only I find funny! Lemme know if you want a copy.”
Irving Theater Green Room Stage
s
Stairs
Vendors
Restrooms
Ladydrawers
Gallery Lobby
Get Dirty Offering a smattering of ceramics ware for sale, as well as weekly classes for kids, teens and adults. Classes are pay as you go classes, no commitments to weeks of classes or hefty fees due at registration. Come as little or often as you like. One hour birthday and just for fun parties are also available, starting at $75 for a party of 6, all materials included.
Kelsey Simpson “My work revolves around junk food, Rock & Roll, and pop art primarily from the 20th century. I am a co-editor of Vulcher fanzine which is published in part by members of The Gizmos. Vulcher is a traditional underground fanzine complete with music articles, comix, and psychedelic illustrations. As an adolescent I was heavy into my local music scene and played drums in a positive hardcore band. I still live as a peace punk today (what Eddie Flowers would call
a Monkee Punk) without all the angst and general confusion. I draw as a release–I am haunted by the ghosts of cartoons that raised me as a child. A character on a test paper sticker. That greeting card no name that could grow up to be a Care Bear one day. When I’m feeling more adjusted I draw dynamic lines that eventually resemble psychedelic expression. I’m reluctant to create but I’m also doomed to create.”
porary punk media, bridging aesthetic diversity through the idea that punk is an experimental and malleable life philosophy, not limited by precedent or degrees of popularity. Beyond art and more than hypothetical, Realicide is strength for change in one’s own life. It is the ability to destroy a reality of abuse and slavery, in favor of seeking alternatives built upon respect and compassion. When fear is the norm, love is radical.
Vulcher
Burdock House
Vulcher fanzine is a collaboration between Gizmos Eddie Flowers, Kelsey Simpson, and Sam Murphy. Classic fanzine hoopla from the people that were there and then some. “We will consider most any submission; we don’t put up with racist, homophobic, or sexist bullshit so take that dated sadness away from here.”
“We are an intentional community in Anderson, reforming in spring 2016. We share our house for community events and projects, most famously all-ages shows.” Home of The Heartland Underground zine and, soon, a baby!
S. Jane Mills S.Jane Mills is an Indianapolis-based artist, illustrator, and photographer. She also selfpublishes zines and comics. Her inspiration comes from all corners of life, but currently, she creates to inspire and empower others, young and old, through art, music, DIY/Zine culture, and comics. Currently, she is focusing on inspiring others with her Quote Mondays, helping other artists to publish their work via her zine Rebel Doll Zine, sharing her love of space exploration with her character A.S.T.R.O. girl, and exploring the world of dark/horror comics with EXCESS comics. When she’s not creating artwork, she enjoys reading, going on adventures with Vyvyan (the wonder pup) and playing bass/ singing in her punk rock band, The Lickers.
Realicide Realicide, the collective band and publications label, is our assertion of contem-
Where the River Frowns Anti-establishment news, analysis and culture from Evansville, Indiana and the tri-state region. We highlight the stories, voices and innovations of those on the margins—the ones who come home tired from working a shitty job and still find the energy to create something beautiful. The ones who find their back against the wall and still find creative and liberatory ways to respond or fight back against the desolate world we inhabit. We are interested in articles on current events, prisons and jails, state repression, radical/counter-cultural movements, race, rebellion/resistance/insurrection, radical history, addiction and substance abuse, anti-fascism, mental illness, gentrification, poverty, animal rights, theory, gender, and other topics. Please send submissions of your analysis, critique, research, first-hand account, report-back, book/zine/album review, memoir, essay, editorial/opinion, creative writing, photography and video. Or better
yet, email us with a pitch about the work you are interested in submitting. We are not interested in content not originating from or directly impacting this region, topics already well covered by the mainstream media, promotion of political candidates, overly academic materials, or articles amplifying the voices of those holding power, of those whose voices are already well heard or of top-down organizations.
Evansville Letters to Prisoners Evansville Letters To Prisoners supports prisoners through writing letters, raising money for prisoners, building awareness of the prison-industrial-slavery complex, and collaborating on other related projects. Anyone wanting to participate is welcome at our weekly writing night.
Jon Drawdoer Jon Drawdoer is a queer cartoonist living in Chicago. Since 2012, he has written and drawn many comics, including Infinite Jest, Tijuana Bible, Guy Gardners, and Mindfulness Comics. He has contributed to anthologies about bears, school mascots, queer horror, and professional wrestling. Jon was happy to exhibit at the Gluestick festival in 2016, and looks forward to returning in 2017. Jon is also an organizer of Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE).
Pubes and Tudes Pubes and Tudes is a loose collective of femmes unified by their disgusting attitudes towards the sterile, hegemonic status quo. some of us have shared the pleasure of exhibiting and hanging out together at recent small press events. We make subversive pop culture zines, prints, and small crafts and engage in conversations about our late-capitalist political climate.
Mike Rippy Do you like treasure? Want to meet a real live OG? Come find this man at the festival and he’ll find what you’re looking for.
Food Not Bombs “One of our friends, Brian Fieganbaulm, was arrested at the May 24th Occupation attempt of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station. We needed to raise money for his legal expenses, so we started holding bake sales outside the student union and in Harvard Square. We didn’t raise much money. I had a moving company called “Smooth Move,” and we moved a family that was throwing out a poster saying “Wouldn’t it be a beautiful day if the schools had all the money they needed and the air force had to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” This gave us the idea to buy used military uniforms at the Central Square Army Surplus Store. So we dressed as generals and propped the poster up next to our bake goods and told people we need then to purchase our cookies and brownies so we could buy a bomber. This caught people’s attention and while we didn’t raise much money we did reach a lot more people. The First National Bank Project asked us to design a brochure about how the board of directors of the Bank of Boston also sat on the boards of the Public Service Company of New Hampshire that was buying Seabrook Nuclear Power Station and the board of Babcock and Willcox that was building the power station. We were already distributing produce that couldn’t be sold from Bread and Circus Natural Grocery so we decided to take some of this recovered food, prepare soup and dress as Hobos and set up a soup kitchen outside the stockholders meeting of the bank with the message that their policies were similar to those of the banks that caused the Great Depression.
The night before the March 26, 1981 action we became worried that we would have gallons of soup but not enough people to eat all of it and make it look like a real depression era soup kitchen so a couple of us went to the Pine Street Inn and told the homeless men at the shelter that we would have a protest the next day at noon outside the Federal Reserve Bank at South Station. To our surprise, nearly 70 people arrived. Soon, business people passing by were sharing food and conversation with the homeless talking about the investment policies of the Bank of Boston and the dangers of Seabrook Nuclear Power Station.”
Maria Iqbal “My work usually falls on the whimsical side and often has existential themes. Recently, however, I’ve been working on new concepts that involve more feminist views. I’ve also been making new things that I feel are different in the sense that I’m not taking things as seriously as I used to. In the past, I used to really agonize over my themes and concepts; now I’m making things just to make them and I’m having more fun with it. I can’t disclose too much right now because it’s still in development, but I’m working on a series called the Titanium Badseed, which is about a bad-ass feminist gang who fights injustices done to minorities, but in the most ungraceful ways. I’m excited for it mostly because it’s based on things within my own life and feels like it could be an alter-ego of myself and others around me.”
The Literary Underground The Literary Underground was founded in 2010 to support independent artists, promote diversity in creativity and foster community in the small press. The effort aims to offer a point of view under-represented in mainstream literature by introducing a
larger population to these marginalized voices. The LU began promoting and hosting events in June 2012 with their participation in the first annual Midwest Small Press Festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since then, the LU has organized events in Oakland, California (“Beast Crawl”); in Albuquerque, New Mexico (“Mothpocalypse” and “Happy Endings”); in Denver, Colorado (“Tiny-amp Records VS The Literary Underground”), in Jacksonville, Illinois (“Nothing to Lose”); in Seattle, Washington (“A Rainy Day in Seattle”); as part of the worldwide “100 Thousand Poets for Change” Day in Danville, Illinois; along with other events in Los Angeles (CA), Springfield (IL), Old Hickory (TN), Lenoir (NC), Hammond (IN), La Porte (IN) and most recently Michigan City (IN). Citizens for Decent Literature Press was founded in 2011 as the publishing arm of The Literary Underground, producing first a print zine, Little Books, Roll Your Own Stories, Limited Edition chapbooks, and an online publication. CfDL now focuses on the successful “This Is Poetry” project which will ultimately result in an eight-volume book collection of poetry, each volume representing poets from a specific geographic region as well as several special collections. Volume 3: Poets of the West is set to be released August 2017 joining Volume 1: Women of the Small Press and Volume 2: The Midwest Poets. Other successful projects of the LU include the Legit AF Reading Series, the Magical Jeep Lending Library, Project U Radio Network and The Literary Underground Wiki—an open-source encyclopedia covering the history, production, and culture of the underground press. More information about these projects and others can be found online at http://the literaryunderground.org.
No New Jail Coalition No New Jail Coalition does not want a new jail in Marion County. We want the
resources proposed for the new “Justice Campus” to be used for supportive services and programs, independent of the criminal justice system, for marginalized individuals throughout Marion County. No New Jail Coalition meets every Tuesday, from 5:30 to 7pm, at the John H. Boner Community Center at 2236 E. 10th st.
Daydrifter is a 5x7 pocket magazine that is distributed throughout the Midwest and explores the creative, mysterious and weird Midwest. Learn more at DaydrifterMag. com or Instagram: @DaydrifterMag
Monster House Press
“My body of work focuses on ambiguous imagery, the relatable and the strange. My stories are meant to be self-interpreted, normally without text, so the viewer experiences the narrative solely through imagery. I enjoy collage, watercolor, texture, line, etc. and I explore these different media through my narratives. I have created two zines to date, Pyrus and Jenna. Pyrus is a story of a young girl setting off in search of an ordinary pear. The symbolism of this story is to represent the search for happiness and satisfaction, which is dedicated to my friend Morgan. Jenna, on the other hand, is a visual memorial of my grandmother, filled with inspirational imagery and uplifting symbolism. My current project is an abstract comic based off women and their amazing qualities/abilities.”
“Monster House Press (est. 2010) is a nonprofit publisher & circuit of literature, art, & thought in the Midwest. We exist in print & online, as well as in the corporeal world via the organization of readings, events, & tours which intend to connect via an intentional being-with through the container of literature & art. We publish work that fuses, deconstructs, grafts, (re) imagines, connects, & disentangles the myths, customs, language, narratives, ideologies, apparatuses, & presuppositions of the contemporary milieu & moment. Emergent voices & writers make home & collaborate alongside established ones in books that illuminate the quotidian to raise it up into an eternal. We publish constantly evolving, challenging, accessible, multi-faceted & pertinent books + texts. We wish to graft a new world with what is most monstrous & necessary to continue. We live in Bloomington, Indiana.”
Daydrifter
Sean Yager
DayDrifter is intended to give a readership and a voice to aspiring writers and artists that have not been given the opportunity before. It’s for the professional author that is experimenting in a new genre. It’s for the computer engineer that stares at three screens at once during the day and keeps a secret notebook of doodles and short stories. It’s for the student with a creative passion but with limited resources to be published. It’s for you, Indiana. DayDrifter is for you to express yourself and to share your creative side with fellow Hoosiers, Midwesterners and those just passing through.
“I am a dungeons and dragons inspired comic cartoonist/illustrator. My work gravitates towards themes of friendship, collaboration, and overcoming overwhelming odds. I work mainly digitally when creating illustrations and my style is pretty cartoonish, I tend to fluctuate between thick and thin line work favoring thin lines lately. My roots started in anime and I ultimately grew away from that style, developing my own brand and presence. When I’m not making comics on my computer I work on linoleum blocks making patches and prints of all kinds. I’ve been thinking
Kaitlyn DeSpain
of making some small hand-printed zines and hope to do so for Gluestick!”
Perennial Magick & Poetry “Perennial Magick & Poetry grew out of the kinship practice of women working and living together on a farm in Southern Indiana. Everyday we would share not only our physical labor in the field, but also the intimate arts of making food and friendship with one another. Based upon our ties with the land, we began to develop and practice an economy of abundance. We began to formulate a vocabulary of regeneration. In the evenings, around the table, we would share our writings, our dreams, and the books and skills we had brought with us. Upon leaving the farm, it felt pertinent to document and distill our explorations. We had planted seeds in one another’s minds and it was our responsibility to nurture those ideas to fruition. The women who contribute to this zine no longer live in the same place but we continue to change the culture of their respective communities through food and poetry. Perennial Magick & Poetry is an annual publication. The creative process operates much like the life cycle of a plant. Spring through Fall, we are writing, experiencing, and gathering the sensory details. Late Fall is the harvest of words and images. Winter is the time to turn inward and edit. It is a time to be still and ponder and rearrange again and again. Spring Equinox is the promise of our underground efforts sprouting in fertile soil. Each issue contains a visual hodge-podge of poetry, collage, photography, essay, and creative manifesto. Themes vary but thus far have included agriculture, healing, the subconscious, mental health, love and light, Magick, absurdism, darkness, masks, mirrors, the importance of community, and more. Looking forward, I like to envision Perennial Magick as a collectively-run women’s
press. I imagine publications where women with crafts such as herbalism, midwifery, bread-making, farming, and more could write of their experiences and bring their expertise to a larger, local audience. But, for now, we will continue to sow these seeds of subversion zine by zine, season by season.”
Danielle Graves “For the past year and a half, I have worked with the same women—these women are no ordinary women, they are crafted by the words that make up today’s pop culture. 50 Cent once told us that ‘she’s beautiful, she’s edible,’ Adam Levine, amongst many other artists, call us ‘sugar,’ ‘honey’ and various other sweeteners or sweets, Instagram gives us a lengthy thread of ‘#foodporn’ posts, while many other hot shots and online sites follow suit in dehumanizing and objectifying women. My work personifies and reclaims these ideas to embrace what the world says about my body and, in result, empowers myself through the unrecognizable absurdities of pop culture. From zines to soft sculpture to plush paintings, my girls now find themselves stagnant in a painting series called Sit here, rest awhile, you deserve it. This lavish series illustrates that women will not sit, that we will not rest, though we certainly do deserve it and so much more. As this series takes shape, so do many others. Each series with an ultimate goal to build onto the plush world that has inadvertently been developing around me, so that my girls have a world of their own to flourish in.”
Katie Cisek “I’d say it’s a mix of art zines and other things that interest me. There are things on the table for different interests. I have a mini zine about my adventures in eating a 100% Raw diet (which didn’t last long). There’s a hand drawn How To zine about making tiny silk cocoon books. I love sharing
examples of these with people. They look so delicate…but they’re really not. I recently did the Milwaukee Zinefest and had so much fun talking to people about silk and mini books. One of my newest zines is a farewell letter to my old Chevy truck. I loved how it opened up a dialog with people about their cars and how we all seem to be pretty attached to our vehicles. I hope to meet people and turn this idea into a collaborative zine in the future. My latest zine is Indiana Surf Girl, about my summer and fall, learning to surf. It finds me in NC, SC, and Sheboygan, WI. I am hoping for a Volume 2 the end of 2017. These are a few of the zines I have ready to go. I’m in the process of others, like one about my experience as a truck driver, and some more art zines. I’d like to put together a poetry zine by July.”
Liana Buszka “Lupina, written by James Wright with art by me, is a 4-issue 32-page comic about a girl raised by a wolf who she meets when her home is destroyed. It is gradually revealed that she possesses a relation to the moon goddess worshipped by her culture. The wolf is her guide. There are themes of colonization, destruction, revenge, growth, and creation. The first issue is an introduction where the main character is thrust into her journey. It is set in a fictional world inspired by Roman and Greek mythology. Some influence also comes from Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, the manga Lone Wolf and Cub and mythology of feral children raised by wolves. The second issue is currently in the works, and may also be available in time for Gluestick. I will also have individual art prints of personal illustrations, and printed zines of my scanned sketchbooks. If I can compile enough, I may have a zine with the theme ‘Rugged Witches’, a series of ink drawings I started in October 2016 featuring nature
witches, gender-non-conforming magicians, gremlin goddesses, and their animal familiars. My sketchbooks feature a lot of animals, creatures, and practice drawing humans. Individual art prints will be of personal paintings, featuring humans, mermaids, and animals such as manatees. My artwork is influenced by comics, manga, as well as fine artists/illustrators such as Rebecca Guay, Scott Fischer, Fiona Staples, Becky Cloonan, Greg Manchess, and Frank Frazetta. I work in both digital and traditional media.”
Katie Armentraut “My comics are done in a diary style mixed with longer narratives and a dash of scattered zine sensibility wrapped in a warm blanket of humor and humility. I call my series Celebrate the People because it is full of offbeat stories and experiences that are not only mine but also those of my friends, family, and you, the people. Ultimately, I strive to relate my observations to others so that it’s easier for us all to laugh at ourselves and not take things so seriously. I also created a series of prints featuring voluptuous tattooed women of various races who promote the message ‘Being Curvy Means More Room for Tattoos.’ Being of curvy stature myself, I felt like my body type was incredibly under represented in the comics scene and was inspired to change that. I began bringing these prints to zinefests and have been honored to receive so much positive and empowering feedback from the public. I was thrilled to see that I was not the only one wanting to see confident big babes on display!”
Vouched Books The Indianapolis branch of Vouched Books will be joining us again with their collection of small press materials! Established in 2010, Vouched has been a champion for small publishers everywhere:
“Whether we’re reviewing work on our website, hosting a reading, or selling small press books at one of our guerrilla bookstores, the heart of Vouched Books is this: we love small press literature. VouchedBooks.com is where we rally to support the small press authors, publishers, and journals that we believe in. Read Single Sentence Reviews of titles we’ve read and loved. Discover new or up & coming authors with our New Love series. Read about the literature we believe will stand the test of time with Indie Lit Classics. Get to know the authors behind the work in one of our Awful Interviews. If you see a Vouched guerrilla bookstore at a local festival, literary, or craft event in your city you will discover a curated collection of small press books that we have read and can vouch for.” Bring a tote bag, a choice milk crate, or a sturdy box and be ready to take home some great material!
Ed Blair & Holy Demon Army Distro Ed’s zines focus on making the niche approachable, be that the spooky world of north and south american black metal, or the rough and tumble athletic displays found in pro wrestling. They also run a distro that attempts to highlight the diversity of zines about professional wrestling, ranging from art-focused zines to poetry to the lovable standard (but no less noteworthy) fanzine.
Face `A Face “Face `A Face is a local publication that documents all facets of being, from the fringe to the forefront. From the darkest dive bar punk show, to the brightest festival or protest – we’re there, ready to report what’s going on in your area. Each being in our community has a story. And it deserves to be told. With all the new developments in Indy – what happens to the history and
as time goes on? We created an archive for that purpose by publishing fiction, news, poems, photos, videos, artist interviews and more. Our subject matter comes from what we view important in our community. Topics from music, fashion, art, women’s rights, black lives matter, food deserts, gentrification and anything that affects our Indy artist community. Starting with an online platform, Face `A Face, also known as FAF Collective, brought together a group of writers, photographers and visual artists to publish bi-weekly online. From there, we’re producing a zine to showcase some stories from our site but also new features from local writers and artists in the Indianapolis and surrounding Indiana cities. All that said, we tell the stories our way. Unapologetic and ethical. When the project came about for the co-creators, Spaceyamzz and I joined forces because we didn’t want to abide by any rules, but make our own. We would go to shows around town, not hearing anything about it in local media. It seemed there was a whole market of artists, but no coverage on the art and magic they were making. Taking a more underground approach, with raw stories and street style mixed together – Face A Face was born. We tell it like it is, simple and to the point. My journalism background mixed with Space’s telecomm creative background makes for a good set of editors for Indy’s newest underground publication. Our mission, to show and prove Indy has a voice. Stay tuned.”
Box Truck Press “I think of the press as an ‘art experiment.’ I actually really am a communist, or something, and I hate ‘business’ so I am creating a Robin Hood situation which I hope will soon snowball and disseminate love, positivity and resources to all of us in need. It is also a way that I can make art people can afford.
I love making awesome coloring books. Mine are the best! I have used real cats and dogs (not the cartoon crap). I also do the line work in color. I also use only free (or basically free) software. Right now I am using Windows Paint and Gimp. For text layout I use office libre. I can layout a whole book in a night with an original cover and not spend a penny. This is all very important because I feel true magic is made from nothing. No tricks. No gimmicks. Just magic. My pulp fiction is true smut. Filthy filthy smut. And I’m new to writing so I thought: who is the most famous author in the world? And I would say Shakespeare. And he wrote the smuttiest-smut no holds bar! He included famous people, and killed almost everyone in the sickest ways. And I launched the project as a street hustle- so I knew I would only ever have about ten seconds to catch a reader. Therefore on every page, every random page one might turn to, the reader would come across something that would want them to go: WHAT??? I gotta know more. All my characters are based on real friends of mine or real people. I wrote a political satire novella and I use a lot of Hindu Gods (I’m a big fan of religion) and my goodness the carnage that book is ridiculous. I kill people with a triceratops (my favorite dino!- also not to blame for the murder)! These politicians are sick! But now I’m working on children’s lit and loving it. I’m like a super liberal Beverly Clearly with strong undertones of Dahl. I’m actually all Dahl and wear Clearly as a disguise!!! Like a FOX!!!
Furious Flair In 2014, three lady humans, Lizzy, Jeanna, and Ashly forged a friendship while working at a comic shop in Chicago. While bonding over Potter, pups, and pins they decided to take their friendship to the next level and start making stuff. Having collected
a plethora of pins and patches themselves they decided it was their turn to give the world the flair it was missing. In August of 2016, this crew hit the streets to enhance one denim vest at a time.
Nate Hillyer Nate is an artist, writer and illustrator working in the sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres. His work has been described as beautifully haunting, bizarre, and melancholic. It delights in mystery and explores the meaning of life and death. He is inspired by religion, philosophy, mystery, the supernatural, legends, myths and more. He primarily creates his own projects and stories and is currently working on a comic called Autumn and a larger illustrated novel called Nox Lucem. You can view his work online at www.natehillyer.com or on Instagram @natehillyer
Julia Eff “My work is entirely cut & paste, hand-written most times, collaged, dark both in theme & in color value (I recently learned that the more toner a copier is laying down, the more likely it is to jam, which is apparently why I’m a chronic copy-machine jammer). I like to pride myself on all my work being really denselypacked and text-heavy. People have said it’s funny but not on purpose and they feel bad for laughing when they read it because the overall subject matter is not usually laughing stuff. I like to write things to educate bystanders who aren’t familiar with the topic at hand while also showing solidarity & a sense of “hey, you’re not alone here, this is what I’m going through” for people that are dealing with it directly. With the exception of a couple DIY zines, I don’t write things that are MEANT to be a resource, but they end up being resources anyway–I’m happy to be the bridge to greater understanding between outsiders & the people they love.
As far as themes & topics go, my running motifs are gender junk, growing up in a small town, feeling lonely/crazy/both, surviving bullshit of all kinds be it mental illness or abuse, music, Myspace bands & how humans fit into internet culture, trying to navigate the adult world when you didn’t plan on living to 18 & thus have no ability to plan for the future, wacky hijinx (cryptids, aliens, mass murderers, inappropriately-placed references to My Chemical Romance), staying true to yourself, and Marilyn Manson. I get really stoked when people are really stoked about stuff, so I’ve also helped a few friends release fanthemed things in creative formats. My table looks like a Goosebumps book.”
BrainTwins “BrainTwins combine their explorations in analog and digital media to create experimental multimedia installations utilizing sound, animation, projection and sculpture. They set no limits on the types of media used in their projects, crossing over between animation, sculpture, sound and anything else they can get their hands on. Their work is a response and homage to sensory overload and how it transports our psyche into new, abstract spaces. BrainTwins hope to provide gateways for viewers to step outside of their own preconceived constructs of the physical world and explore the hard to define territory deep in the unconscious mind.”
Chris Escobar “My work is based around the things I enjoy/inspire me. Hilarious pop-culture references, games I played growing up, even things that happen day to day at work or on the commute. All these interests are used as creative fuel that is funneled into comics, zines, or prints. As well as those interests I enjoy building worlds with my work. The worlds I create are idealized places that I would much rather be, despite how terrible
they may seem. Places where all the things I enjoy doing are plentiful and at the forefront. A lot of the zines reflecting this idea are still in progress. The comic I’ve put most of my time and effort into creating, is called No Room for a Marauder, a comic I’ve been working on writing since 2013. Currently, I fulfill all the roles in its production. This harrowing story is based around Dertog, a dim-witted mutant who is unknowingly exiled from his home after he becomes sick. The story intentionally has a lot of parallels to Lord of the Flies. It’s intended to be a satire on a lot of social situations that occur through life. From crappy bosses to team-based experiences. This comic, I hope, to one day publish as a graphic novel. It will certainly be at that length when finished. I create my content on my own at the moment. Since I don’t have a studio to work out of, every project is worked on in my tiny apartment. Painstakingly trimming all the zines in my kitchen, drawing all the comics and illustrations in my bedroom, and washing and reclaiming screens in my bathtub. From having no other option to work in such a cramped space brings forth a lot of inspiration to work as well. I do enjoy coziness.”
Adam Gundrum “I make collage art by cutting images out of old books, magazines, newspapers, record sleeves, coupons, etc. Basically anything that can be cut is fair game to me. I usually don’t have much of a theme in mind for my work. I just create what comes to mind at the moment. Most of my work is surreal or abstract. Some of it could be considered topical. I would like to set up at the festival to meet other artists and zine makers, while also hopefully getting my artwork into new people’s hands.”
Rachel Dause “When creating works, the medium I usually go with is acrylic paint or ink, using
them as a wash much like watercolor. My work can shortly be described as narrative, expressive, and colorful in aesthetic. I greatly enjoy focusing on imaginative characters in whimsical environments, and using bold, contrasting colors to make the composition pop. Wash textures are also a source of my work, typically found in background spaces. The initial style gives a positive, up-beat expression to the viewer, but many of my works have followed this initial feeling with a dark, opposing, concepts behind the narratives. A year ago I focused my college thesis work on my own personal ideas of identity and my anxiety-driven perception of social norms. These are often expressed through subtle metaphorical instances or symbols, though my recent work has been more light-hearted in nature than that previous year. Lately, character creation has been my interest, with a lack of deeper meaning compared to my thesis and more open for the viewer’s imagination to take the lead. Creating work for the Gluestick festival, I’m excited to create a playful collection of characters that everyone can enjoy.”
Anne Buckwalter “My work exists at the intersection of queerness, gender, and zines. I became interested in zines while in college. I attended meetings of the Oberlin Comix Collective and got hooked. The organizers of the Collective used to say, ‘You don’t have to be good at drawing to draw comics,’ and that mantra really resonated with me. I published comics in the Collective’s semesterly anthologies for three years. In my fourth year, I ran the Collective and did a thesis project in zine format for my Gender Studies major. That project turned into my longest zine, Gendercomic (60 pages), which is a collection of autobiographical stories relating to gender, gender discovery, feminism, and queerness. (It also has a lengthy bibliography, thanks academia.)
I printed the original run of those zines on a risograph, self-assembled all 100 copies, and distributed them at school and at zine festivals. (Luna Music in Broad Ripple and Printext also have some copies for sale.) I’m still getting some mileage out of this zine, which I have since sold at DC Zinefest (for which I became an organizer when I moved to DC this past winter), and at local comics shop Fantom Comics. The current print run was printed on the Espresso Book Machine at the DC Public Library. A newer zine of mine deals with pop culture through the lens of my queerness. This zine, An Ode to the Ditty Bops: A Musical Fanzine, examines how I and others could have known, from my penchant for weird/ queer pop culture since I was little, that I am queer. I’m currently working on making this zine into a series, also featuring the Scissor Sisters and the Brini Maxwell Show. I also have a collaboration zine in the works that I am not ready to talk about yet, but I hope it will feature the illustrations of my 7th-grade mentee. All of my work is very DIY, mostly folded and stapled by yours truly (excepting the newest run of Gendercomic). I love zines so much and would be honored to rep mine in my hometown.”
Brett Manning This year we are ecstatic to have Brett Manning as a tabler and as the artist behind our kawaii 2017 poster. We first found Brett at CAKE in Chicago, and later in–of all places–Logansport, Indiana. “I have been self publishing zines for several years now, but apart from making comics and zines I work primarily as an artist and illustrator from my home studio in Royal Center, IN. My work is all very personal, sort of diary-like, but mixed with powerful emotions and those magical mystical notions that come from a visceral part of us all, deep within the soul and collected unconscious.
I also like cheeky humor, but enjoy true sentiment. Some people see sentiment as a weakness, but I think there’s nothing more powerful than expressing your innermost desires and dreams, even if the rest of the world views them as being childish. Magic is real if you allow for it, and nothing is too far out of reach. My comics are also very encouraging for young women, and I touch on lots of feminist ideas and the strange stigmas of today. One of my goals is to educate young women who are doubtful of themselves and their abilities and let them know that they’re not alone and they’re actually doing just fine if in fact they are doing something that they enjoy or working towards that goal. As a young person I was stricken with nearly crippling self doubt based on what I looked like and was absolutely terrified to answer questions in school for fear of looking stupid or the thought of people making fun of my quiet voice. I never really had many women artists or comics to look up to or to gain hope from, besides Frida, so learning to accept myself for who I am was a big part of my youth. Things changed when I moved to Chicago, though. I was finally alone. I learned to face these fears by living through them. I think gaining that strength has fueled a lot of my art and written work. Self-confidence is hard, but with art and experience, things can get better!”
Excess Comics Excess Comics was started by S. Jane Mills and is an online collection of short story comics of the weird, dark, and unusual. Excess wishes to serve as collection of dark comics as well as a resource space for comic artists/writers to be inspire with tutorial posts and interviews of other comic artists/
writers. As the project grows, they hope to provide other comic artists/writers a means to have their comics printed in half-zine format (8.5x5.5).
Black Acre “The magical origin story of this thing happenin’ all began in probably the least exciting of settings: a legal writing class in the first year of law school in 2008. Woo. During one of those super-fantastic ice breaker things, Jordan piped up that his ‘interesting fact’ was that he was a homebrewer. When it got around to Justin, he decided to be a total copy-cat and also mention homebrewing. Not long thereafter, Justin and his wife Holly, who had been brewing together since their heady days at IU undergrad, began brewing with Jordan and his forth oldest friend and then roommate Matt, who also began brewing together during their undergraduate tenure at Purdue. Another law student, Steve, joined the group in our second year of law school. We quickly found ourselves growing fresh hops in Holly/Justin’s backyard, and having around 15 five-gallon kegs fill up four refrigerators in their house. So naturally, in one of Jordan and Justin’s Trademark law classes, they started talking about sharing our love of brewing and great beer. We wanted to join in the incredible craft beer revolution of Indianapolis, with a focus on returning to the idea of a pre-prohibition style neighborhood brewery. Luckily, we found a wonderful partner in the Irvington neighborhood, which we fell in love with almost immediately, and a year later opened our doors. Our brewery is a small 3 barrel (93 gallon) electric brewing system. Our focus is on brewing specialty and seasonal ales, with a few stickin’ around on the regular.”
Sponsors of Gluestick 2017
Clark Giles, Broker
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There is much more in the area to discover, but this should get you started. 1 Irving Theater 2 10 Johnson/deck 3 Irvington Vinyl (Free Market outside) 4 Bookmama’s 5 World of Vapor 6 The Legend Classic Irvington Cafe 7 Collector’s Paradise (comics and memorabilia) 8 Black Sheep Gifts 9 Black Acre Brewing 10 Guitar Town
11 Jockamo Pizza 12 Huntington Bank (ATM) 13 CVS Pharmacy (6005 E Washington) 14 Antique Mall 15 Family Dollar 16 Jordan’s Fish & Chicken 17 Speedway (ATM) 18 BP (ATM) 19 Cardtronics (ATM) 20 Blue Indy charging station (at the library)